AMD Allegedly Testing Hybrid Processor with Zen 4 and 4c Cores:
An unannounced AMD processor identified as Family 25 Model 120 Stepping 0 recently showed up in the MilkyWay@Home database. The CPU can process 12 threads simultaneously and the CPU expert @InstLatX64 believes that this is AMD's codenamed Phoenix 2 processor, packing two high-performance Zen 4 cores and four energy-efficient Zen 4c cores.
AMD Eng Sample processor marked 100-000000931-21_N [Family 25 Model 120 Stepping 0] features 12 logical cores (i.e., six physical cores with simultaneous multithreading) and reports about 1MB of cache, which indicates that the MilkyWay@Home client cannot correctly determine the amount of cache featured by the chip. The listing itself does not prove that we are dealing with AMD's hybrid Phoenix 2 processor with Big.Little-like core configuration, but six physical/12 logical cores featured by an unknown CPU gives us a hint that this may match the rumors.
AMD's Phoenix 2 processor (which does not have a lot in common with the company's Phoenix APU) is rumored to feature two 'big' Zen 4 cores with 2MB L2 and 4MB L3 cache as well as four 'small' Zen 4c cores equipped with 4MB L2 and 4MB L3 cache, which is a rather surprising cache configuration. The APU is also said to pack an RDNA 3-based integrated GPU with 512 stream processors and has a DDR5/LPDDR5X-supporting memory subsystem, according to 3DCenter. @InstLatX64 claims that AMD's Phoenix 2 APU has an A70F8x CPUID, whereas CoelacanthDream asserts that the CPUID of the processor is 0x00a70f80.
For now, any information about Phoenix 2 in general and the 100-000000931-21_N [Family 25 Model 120 Stepping 0]processor in particular should be taken with a grain of salt since AMD has loads of products in the pipeline.
The alleged Phoenix 2 processor with two Zen 4 cores and four Zen 4c cores has been running MilkyWay@Home client since early March, which indicates that someone within AMD or even outside of the company is test driving the chip. This may be a sign that the CPU will be released in the foreseeable future, though it is unclear when exactly. Meanwhile, based on unofficial information, AMD is set to release its Phoenix 2 APUs in the second half of 2023.
(Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Tuesday March 21 2023, @09:22AM
The codename was leaked by Moore's Law is Dead [youtube.com] on June 16, 2022, and then another leaker divulged a Zen 4 + Zen 4C + RDNA3 configuration on November 29, 2022 in a now-deleted tweet:
One RDNA Workgroup (WGP) = Two Compute Units (CUs).
It doesn't seem like something a Steam Deck would use, if it has half the compute units. Valve employees have recently stated that the company won't make any major changes to the Steam Deck SoC in the near future, instead focusing on battery life and other build improvements.
It looks like a successor to "budget" APUs like Dali and Mendocino. The TDP might be too high though.
TSMC orders are down [focustaiwan.tw] due to oversupply and weak demand, so maybe a node like N4 will become a "budget node" sooner than expected. Don't count on it though.
Bergamo Epyc chips using Zen 4C cores are being deployed in H1 2023. We know that Zen 4C gets half as much L3 cache, allowing it to be more compact, and is intended to clock lower. The mobile Zen 4 cores in this leak and the announced 8-core Phoenix already have half the L3 cache, so mobile Zen 4C would go down to 1 MB per core if the leak is correct. L2 cache is apparently the same in every variation of Zen 4.
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